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Defense Ministry: Situation relatively calm on front line

Situation on contact line is calm compared to past days, spokesperson of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, Lieutenant-Colonel Vagif Dargahli told Trend on August 3.

There is still evidence of shootings, but this is not shelling by heavy weapons but a fire opened from small arms mainly with automatic weapons, he said.

Dargahli also noted that the Armenian armed forces violated ceasefire on all fronts last night.

"Armenian armed forces opened fire at the Azerbaijani armed forces` positions from positions on their territory and even from the positions on the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenians. In total, ceasefire was violated 190 times within 24 hours. In all cases the enemy shooting was silenced by response fire," Dargahli said.

He also noted that no soldiers of the Azerbaijani army was injured during the ceasefire violation.

Recall that Armenian armed forces launched a diversion on the night of July 31-August 1, when reconnaissance and sabotage groups tried to cross the contact line of the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops through the territories of Aghdam and Terter regions.

Armenia's reconnaissance and sabotage group attacked the positions of Azerbaijani armed forces in the direction of Azerbaijan's Aghdam and Agdere regions on the night of August 1-2. Azerbaijan managed to locate the group and the sabotage attempt was prevented.

During the last four days, Azerbaijani positions have been constantly under attack, and 12 servicemen have been killed, several more got wounded. Armenian side suffered more losses, while trying to hide this fact from the public.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.